Old times

We put up a tree in Punter's bedroom today. (I use the term "bedroom" loosely, as he sleeps with us.)

This was a tree that we have had for awhile, but haven't put up in several years. I know I haven't seen it since we have lived here. It was a tree from our tiny apartment. I had forgotten how small it is. At just 4 feet or so, it is completely dwarfed by our main tree.

We had this tree when we had nothing. We didn't even have room to put it anywhere, so it stayed on our dining table. And we ate at the couch for the month of December. We didn't have much in the way of decorations, so we bought all these blue and silver things. We added to it a little every year. It was such a sweet tree in a Charlie Brown kind of way. It was small and sweet and perfect.

The year that we knew we would be moving to a house, we bought a huge tree on clearance right after Christmas. It is the tree we use now. My mom passed down all the family ornaments to my brother and me a few years back. Plus, she started a tradition of giving my brother and I an ornament every year. And Santa brings everyone in our family an ornament. So, it wasn't long before our tree was full. And it is full of Waterford, Lenox and Wedgwood. And beautiful. We stopped using the blue and silver ornaments and just use the "special" ornaments.

But this year, Punter was so into the decorating that we thought it would be nice to put the small tree up in his room. We got it out and put it on his art table. It took mere minutes to set up. We had to jury-rig the top that was always crooked. This year we secured it with a foot long twist tie. And Punter and I spent the morning decorating it with the blue and silver balls and garland and the "leftovers" from the tree downstairs. And we put the extra star on top.

And it was so small and sweet. And perfect.